Household saving is defined as the difference between a household’s disposable income (wages, income of the self-employed and net property income) and its consumption (expenditures on goods and services.)

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Cover Story

COVER STORY: FINANCIAL REGULATION By Justin Keay Businesses can expect to see their top-line costs rise under new banking regulations in the US and Europe. Will it be money well spent? If in pre-credit-crunch days policymakers uttered ...

Features

PLAY ON By Antonio Guerrero Brazil is betting that its huge investment in infrastructure projects for the 2014 Soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympics will provide long-term benefits to the country. Just six weeks after Rio ...

UPDATE — ENVIRONMENTAL RISK INSURANCE By Paula L. Green Demand for environmental and climate-change-related insurance is set to rise sharply. Along with more government regulations meant to rein in multinationals’ damage to the environment, the heightened public ...

FOCUS — EQUITY DERIVATIVES By Gordon Platt New regulation should improve transparency in the increasingly popular equity derivatives market. The financial reforms signed into law by President Obama on July 21 will substantially change the way many ...

ANALYSIS — ASIA'S EXPORTERS By Thomas Clouse Asia’s exporters are all benefiting as China’s manufacturers begin to move up the value chain. The Asian economic miracle is hardly a new story, but every once in a while, ...

Award Winners

ANNUAL SURVEY: BEST INTERNET BANKS PART 1 In the first of a two-part series, Global Finance identifies the best online corporate and consumer banks by country and regionally by product or service category. By Adam Rombel The ...

Emerging Markets Roundup

Emerging Markets Investor: Company To Watch By Gordon Platt Cementos Argos, the leader in the Colombian cement industry, with a 51% market share, is benefiting from growing construction activity in its home market and a healthy backlog of ...

Emerging Markets Investor: DR News By Gordon Platt India’s finance ministry issued neles in June requiring listed companies to have a public float of at least 25% of their shares. The new rules could prompt a rush of ...

Emerging Markets Investor: News By Gordon Platt Julian Thompson, portfolio manager at Threadneedle Emerging Markets Equity Fund, says he expects China’s economic growth to slow and sees much more opportunity in other parts of the world. Much of ...

ROUNDUP By Antonio Guerrero Front right: Corruption fighter Goodluck Jonathan Flushed with confidence after its peaceful referendum on a new constitution, Kenya plans to issue $390 million of infrastructure bonds, the government’s fourth such issue. The bonds will ...

ROUNDUP By Thomas Clouse Power hungry: China’s energy use climbs China overtook the United States to become the world’s largest energy consumer, according to figures released in July by the International Energy Agency. China used energy equivalent to ...

MIDDLE EAST By Gordon Platt High point: Saudi Arabia dominates region’s IPOs Companies based in Saudi Arabia led initial public offerings in the Middle East in the first half of 2010, but the United Arab Emirates is expected ...

ROUNDUP By Kim Iskyan Smoke signal: Moscow suffers as wildfires rage In response to a severe drought that could destroy as much as a third of Russia’s grain harvest, and following a spike in grain prices in July, ...

Supplements

By Anita Hawser Having survived one of the worst recessions on record, companies understand better than ever that treasury management is important for improved efficiency, whether through tightening their accounts-receivable or accounts-payable processes to unlock working capital or limiting ...

FX EXPOSURE MANAGEMENT Currency volatility is increasing, and companies are finding that more than ever they need to have an effective FX hedging strategy in place. By Anita Hawser Frank Pirozzi is the assistant treasurer at Red ...

DATA ANALYTICS Analytics solutions pull data from disparate sources to provide a big-picture view of operations and exposures. By Denise Bedell In the wake of the financial crisis, the job of the treasurer has increasingly focused on ...

SHARED SERVICE CENTERS There are many options for how to set up and roll out a shared service center, providing an approach for every budget and corporate structure. By Denise Bedell As the recession thaws and purse strings ...

Country Report

GETTING SMART By Gordon Platt Egypt is turning to information technology to create a knowledge-based economy. Near the pyramids at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt's first technology park is changing the desert landscape. A total ...

AN ATTAINABLE GOAL By Antonio Guerrero Spain's economy is still under pressure, but signs of renewed confidence are slowly emerging. When Spain beat the Netherlands in July to win the country's first-ever soccer World Cup, ...

Milestones

EUROPE By Anita Hawser No thank you: Companies reject costly bank loans Investment-grade companies are shunning bank lending and opting instead for the bond markets in order to raise financing, a report by Fitch Ratings says. Based on ...

GLOBAL By Anita Hawser State Street’s Will Kinlaw Stress testing risk models and investment portfolios for extreme market events has certainly come into vogue in the wake of the financial crisis. Banks’ risk models were criticized for focusing ...

VIETNAM By Thomas Clouse Clinton: Comments on marine conflicts upset China Vietnam and the United States participated in joint military exercises last month for the first time since the war between the two countries ended 35 years ago. The ...

UNITED STATES By Gordon Platt Taking a new tack: Ben Bernanke, Fed chairman Fed watchers around the world were surprised in August when the Federal Open Market Committee announced a decision to target the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, ...

Corporate Finance

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS — GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS By Gordon Platt Depositary receipt trading worldwide rose 8.3% to more than 78 billion DRs in the first half of this year and was valued at a record $1.84 trillion, according to ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS — CORPORATE DEBT By Gordon Platt The volume of global corporate high-yield debt issues in the first half of 2010 set an all-time record for any six-month period, according to Thomson Reuters. The total of ...

CORPORATE FINANCING NEWS - FOREIGN EXCHANGE By Gordon Platt The Federal Reserve is likely to keep US interest rates at record lows well into next year, enabling global investors to borrow dollars for a song and invest in ...

UNITED STATES By Gordon Platt Who me? Hurd’s multi-million dollar payoff riles investors Mark Hurd received a $20 million Golden Hello when he joined as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard in 2005, and a Golden Handshake that could be ...